absolutely. i think the ap story depending on how far the irs story goes can consume the presidency depending on how far and how high the irs was. >> stranger danger. >> it's way too early this morning, but here is chuck. >> trifecta with accusations over ben gaza skpetghazi and th. the justice department secretly read phone records of their reporters. an unprecedented role. we will talk to one member of congress who represents the area and talk about whether class will do this. a deep dive into the upcoming election in iran where that

country's abrasive president is on the way out and hundreds of candidates are trying to take his place in a rocket filing deadline over the weekend. >> good morning. it's tuesday, may 14th and time for "the daily rundown." here's chuck todd. >> thanks to maple syrup farmer for sending us that video. keep them coming. let's get to the first reads of the morning. monday night with supporters in new york after what was a rough 72 hours made no mention of what is three major controversies and distractions swirling around his administration. he did share frustration. >> i sure want to do governing and get stuff done. i don't have a lot of time. i have 3 1/2 years left and it goes by like that. >> in washington it to be a lot

quicker. when it rains t pours. the battle late on monday, they disclosed that the justice department secretly obtained roars on more than 20 separate phone lines used by reporters and editors. this new efilation followed a day of damage voel. president obama promised to hold irs staff fully accountable and touching his criticism a bit. >> if in fact irs personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, that's outrageous. i have no patience with it and i will not tolerate it and we will make sure we find out exactly what happened on this. >> the president said he was not made aware of the allegations until last friday. the timeline in a draft report by an inspector general and the

irs began scrutinizing groups that included tea party and patriot it is as early as march 2010. the timeline shows the chief counsel was briefed in august of 2011 and if by testimony from then commissioner douglas shullman saying they were not being singled out, the irs said the deputy was informed of the targeting two months later. if new documents show the operation was not just carried out by a rogue agent or office in cincinnati, irs official were involved with investigating conservative groups. what's not clear there on that reporting is whether it was only singling out conservative groups and whether they were doing more than that. we know they were singling out. the scathing criticism did become bipartisan with

democrats. harry reid said targeting is inappropriate. max bacchus promised to hold hearings calling the agency's actions an outrageous abuse of power and breech of trust. the irs's activities are unacceptable and unamerican. there is no excuse for ideological discrimination in our system. they used the scandal to go after the president more broadly. by mitch mcconnell who told a group of conservatives on a conference call that the obama effort to shut up opponents is not limited. you remember the obama campaign last year published the list of eight business men who they believed were enemies and republicans rushed to condemn the president's abuse of power.

>> he has extraordinary power and he is using it to investigate enemies. he sounds drunk on power for most americans. when they hear these types of stories. >> one of the most egregious use of powers, one of the counts against richard nixon was abuse of power by calling the irs to investigate. >> yes, that was former vice president dick cheney. they are trying to tie the scandal to the implementation of health care. >> the agent that is going to be responsible for implementing obama care that will mortify the american people. the whole episode reinforces and confirms the american people's worst fears about big government run amok. >> on saturday, lamar alexander

compared kathleen sebelius for the implementation of health care to iran contra. marco rubio will introduce legislation introduced in the house by mike turner criminalizing the groups. oversight and government reform and ways and means. also plans to investigate the irs friday. a race to try to get a hearing started. john mccain and karl levin plan an investigation of the role of nonprofit groups in politics to include the irs. folks, there was a whole part of this system with the irs that frankly a lot of campaign advocates want to bring attention to and they will have a harder time. as critical as the president was, what drew his fire on monday was benbenghazi.

he called it a political circus. >> the whole issue of talking points frankly throughout this process has been a side show. suddenly three days ago this gets spun up as if there is something new to the story. there is no there there. >> the president mocked the cover upcharge noting that even as the un ambassador was pointing to a you tube video, another official called it a briefing to congress just a few days after those appearances. >> who executes some sort of cover up or effort to tap things down for three days. so the whole thing defies logic. >> republican critics responded senators mccain and gram took issue with the assertion that he never waivered in calling

benghazi an action of terrorism. >> it's disgusting. spin me once, shame on you. spin me twice, shame on me. does he believe he called benghazi a terrorist attack from the get go? his administration tried to convince them there was no al qaeda involvement. >> was it graham is referring to. they put this litany of presidential appearances. they called that act of terror language that the president used the day after the attack generic. >> no acts of terror will shake the resolve of this great nation and alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. >> the lawmakers lifted multiple instance where is he held off on calling it a terrorist attack for more than a week.

>> we are still investigating what happened. i don't want to jump the gun. >> do you have information on whether it was iran or al qaeda? >> we will still doing an investigation. >> we are still doing an investigation. >> the president was dismissive of republicans on the ben goesy issue, the investigation does continue later this week and congress will hear from tom pickerth and two men who did the internal review. it's unclear how we will hear from them. he wants that testimony to be public. they have for these two men, hillary clinton interviewed for their investigation. now to the other scandal that is throwing a lot of attention, the admission that it tracked 20 phone lines last spring. it's not clear where they track the call, but the timing

coincides with the press report that included leaks about the cia counter terrorism efforts. at the time it was republican who is slammed the administration and they were demanding an investigation into the leaks. >> i think it goes without saying that all of us are upset about the fact that not only have leaks occurred, but there is a cascade of leaks out of the intelligence community over the last several weeks and months. it's our clear intention to put a stop to this. >> the cascade of leaks that senator was referring to included reports on the drone programs. the kill lists in yemen and pakistan. at the time the white house was being accused of disclosing classified information for political gain. the president called it offensive and said leaks meade his job tougher.

>> my attitude has been zero tolerance for these kinds of leaks and speculation. >> at least two special leak investigations were launched at the time. the justice department was accused of not doing enough. it appears they may have gone too far. whether they did enough to seek the informs through other mens and whether eric holder signed off on the plan personally. >> they had an obligation to lock for every other way before they intruded. if they went to the general, he should be held accountable for what i think it wrong. if it didn't, when is the justice department going to take responsibility for what it does? >> they have been looking at this and he's in new york. that's the question here and previously other organizations

have been involved in it. there is some effort to negotiate between the government and the news organization on the use sometimes of what is leak classified information. it doesn't appear that justice tried to work with the press, does it? >> the types of cases in which you try to negotiate, when you want information that they have. documents that may have obtained and footage and in this case the government was going to the phone company to get the records of the reporters's calls. i suppose in theory you could have said that the justice department said we want to know the numbers your reporters have called. they didn't do that here. there is a separate part of the rule that doesn't require them to do that in advance if they are seeking phone records. none the less, you have to get the sign off on the attorney general. they haven't said if he was directly involved, it seems

likely he was. there was a possibility he could have had this on his own. it seems from a look at the rules that they will have to be involved. we will hear from him in the next day or so. he goes up on the hill and he will be answering questions about this. how much he can say, i don't know. if this is a matter under investigation and there is secrecy, he is going to have to answer questions about it. >> who is leading this investigation? is it the u.s. attorney's office in washington? who is the lead authority on this investigation? >> the u.s. attorney in washington and the u.s. attorney general put him in charge of the investigation that involved the fax that is the ap got way ahead of other news organizations the fact that the u.s. was involved in foiling a plot by al qaeda in yemen to recruit someone who would be an underwear bomber and

board an airplane headed for the u.s. what we now know and the yemenis didn't know it at the time, this was a person who was recruited with the help of another country and masquerade being as someone who was a terrorist and working with the west all the time. >> the broad nature of this subpoena or this federal grab, if you will, of phone records, it looks more like a fishing expedition than a specific target. >> it's narrow and broad at the same time. directioned at certain reporters according to what we know about this. what it knows about it coming from the government. the government has to disclose it once it does when it's through. that's why we know this now it. did that's the narrow part of it. the broad part is the ap said it

looked at the general outgoing phone number for washington and new york and hartford, connecticut. it had both sides. leak investigations in the past, the government tries to go at the government source of the investigation. here and in the past most administrations stope there if they can't get the answer. the obama administration decided to go with the other part of this which was the reporter. >> it could have an unintended consequence. thank you, pete. >> you bet. >> up next, neighborhood watch with a 10-year might mare for three girls in the middle of a blue collar cleveland neighborhood. did class issues affect the investigation and keep government from actually looking into what was going on in the neighborhood. we will talk about that with marcia fudge. jersey shore. why chris christie is going

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. as the investigation continues in the kidnappings of

three young women, the handling is under major scrutiny. with castro's long and violent history and a 2004 case of endangerment with the councilmembers and the mayor and he held three women in captivity for nearly a decade. marcia fudge chairs the congressional black caucus. i can't help but look at this and we heard neighbors swear they did call the police because funny things were happening. you hear stories all the time and it happens in a lot of cities where the poor neighborhood doesn't get the same attention that a wealthier neighborhood would if somebody made a call to complain about what was going on in someone's house. what are you hear something. >> what i am really hearing more is that they can't figure out how he was in a position to have

done what he did. you talked about his violent past and how he severely beat his wife. he should probably never have been on the street. >> by the way, he was a school bus driver. >> yeah. >> how does that happen? is there not a background check? >> i have no idea. crazy. >> i'm sorry. >> certainly he shouldn't be around young children, but it may not have been the police as much as the judicial system. when you take these cases to court, judges should have the judgment to take a person like that off the street. it was as much of a break down as the police department. they have done their job. i listened to the amanda berry family and the gina dejesus family. they are praising the police for all they did. in an urban area like cleveland,

today there almost 100 missing persons in the files. in our city alone. those two families, the berry and dejesus family kept this always on the front burner and talked to the police on a regular basis and had rallies. i don't know if i can say it was because of a poor or working class community, but the actions of the family kept it out there. i'm sure their cases get pushed to the back burper. >> do you hear more about trust or less trust with authorities or if the local government said we need to take a second look. at the end of the day a community talking to each other and spending time out on the streets and maybe they would have been noticed sooner. >> that may be some of the good. you have to look for it to come

out of something so tragic and sadistic and heart breaking. you saw that the police had a meeting with the residents. as poor people and minorities, there is an inherent distrust of police. it goes to the good will of the police to say look, we are your friends and we have done all we can do. we will be here. the bigger thing is neighborhoods have broken down. i listened to people in that very neighborhood on that very street who have used the words we are shamed and we didn't know. we are distressed we didn't find out. that sense of community that grows out of this will be something good for not only our city, but others. know your neighbor and believe it or not, people did know ariel castro. they knee who he was. >> an evil mind. there is only so much you can do. we have to remember who the

criminal is. i want to ask you about a couple of things in washington. you talked about the distrust that goes on between particularly police department and some minorities in some communities. this scandal is leaching that and addingly to the cynicism that is already there a little bit with a lot of people when it comes to government. i am curious about your reaction to the irs news. >> let me say two things. obviously i don't have all of the faxes and rush to judgment, but i would say this. if they are dealing with a class or group of people differently than another, my bigger problem is these institutions or not for profits as they call themselves who really focus on the political inch in the first place. that's on both sides. if they are doing this in an uneven or underhanded or a way that is discriminating to one

group, heads need to roll. >> the issue of 501 c 4 moniker and that's the advocates have wanted to target and get set back on that anyway. marcia fudge who represents that part of cleveland or that horrible tragedy that took place. thanks for coming on. >> up next, developing news on the peace negotiations. an american diplomat has been accused of spying. more than 70 irs commissioners and acting commissioners since the agency was created in 1862. who served the shortest term. you will get an on air shout out. the answer and more on "the daily rundown." 20? new purina one beyond has 9. the simplified purina one beyond.

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. >> busy radar. john kerry called on ba shar al assad. secretary kerry expects a meeting to be held in early june. they called on them to continue the officials in syria. russia will supply them with d vanced missiles and asked the country to not do so. it comes a day after president obama and david cameron met at the white house and there was distance on the syria issue. with cameron using far more urgent language. five million people forceed from their homes. serious history is being written in the blood of her people. the world meads to bring the killing to an end. they say that a cia officer was

detained on supposed suspicions of spying after he attempted to recruit a russian secret agent. he was under the guides of a diplomat and written introductions and a large sum of money when he was detained. sounds like a tom clancy novel. to minnesota where later mark dayton will sign the same-sex marriage bill into law. the house passed it 75-79. wettings between same-sex couples can be as early as august 1st. florida senator's marco rubio's super park will defend on gun control. ayotte was criticized in her state. she say mother and a former state attorney general and knows how to be tough on crime.

i have to say i don't remember a candidate running an ad to help someone i hope will endorse him should he run in 2016. governor chris cristy is explaining where his campaign aired a negative ad. she said i would have run a purely positive campaign and he will finish it. the latest ad is called out for raising taxes. the second tv ad and part of an $800,000 media purchase. >> politics is a family business. john kerry's brother will be secretary of commerce at theent of this month. we assume they will get the nod and the way it works, the acting

and two brothers at the same time. up next, turbulent times as iranians get ready for the first presidential elections since the disputed one prompted massive protest in a crack down. we will go live to deran why this vote matters here in the united states. how it has gotten a bit chaotic. are you sensitive to dairy? then you'll love lactose-free lactaid® it's 100% real milk that's easy to digest so you can fully enjoy the dairy you love. lactaid®. for 25 years, easy to digest. easy to love.

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today the media election to replace the iranian president that is explosioning splits in the country. the election is one month from today at stakes the direction of iran and the future stability of the entire region. if you want a hint at the kind of unpredictability we are likely to see, consider this. there more than 600 would be candidates including high profile figures that include the mayor of tehran and government

officials. the field was thrown into further disarray by a fair of unexpected developments. just before saturday's registration deadline, the ex-period threw his hat into the ring seen as a moderate. he is expected to gain support and could be a threat to the regime in general. candidates can only run if the guardian council controlled by supreme leader allows them to run. in declaring the candidacy, he could be daring the ayatollah to disqualify him. they could risk the same protest that surrounded the allegedly rigged reelection in 2009. the june election will highlight the power struggle. both men will work to stack the deck in favor of their own favorites.

they are fielding more than 20 candidates. they are likely the protege. his older brother is also running, but he would rather have the protege and not his brother. where does this lead? chuck hegel offered this under statement on friday. >> there is a presidential election next month in iran. no one can predict with any certainty if that might affect the future direction of iranian policies. >> yeah, i would think so. our nbc tehran bureau chief, our shot is going in and out, but we will do our best. 600 candidates filed and we know the big names. explain the process and how soon we will know when the ayatollah weighs in and decide who is gets to run for president. >> essentially in iranian

politics, anyone who is iranian and a nationalist and religious believes in the credentials of the islamic republic is allowed to run. there is a strict vetting by the guardian council made up of six clerics and six jurists who will vet the names and know more and really be able to tar miss pate for the elections. the council is deliberating now and they have this up until the 26th of may to decide who they will allow to run in the election. up until the last day or the last moments of registration on saturday, this election looked like it was going to pass without incident orphan fa fan . >> was that the most shock of them all or the president deciding not to do it? if he ends up being allowed to

run, does he end up becoming the front-runner and the most popular candidate in a country feeling a lot of economic anxiety? >> everything in a spin. >> he's a regime and the great political survivor. she known for the man for all seasons. he is president for eight years and speaker of the parliament and known as the king maker. he was essential in becoming the supreme leader 25 years ago and seems to have a lot of support. he may be able to revive the economy and mend foreign policy fences that have been certainly on a very rocky road over the last eight years. he is seen as a practice

mativity and at odds with the supreme leader. over the last few days, councils have accused him of abandoning the supreme leader in the elections and supporting the green movement. there is a lot to play here. it will be unlikely he will be disqualified, but he's the big name in the elections and taken away a lot of esteem from the candidates. it looks like it will be a two-horse race. and the man for all seasons. chuck? >> i assume the united states will not try to say much about who they prefer, but is it to say he's the guy that the united states was most likely able to have some sort of relationship versus ahmadinejad? >> he is the guy who was seen as

a man who was educated at johns hopkins and very calm and pragmatic. the big thing is he's seen as someone who can revive the economy and do deals with the west and possibly get rid of the sanctions. he wants to open up commerce and wants just to be in the hands of business. he wants others to be involved which may open doors with the west and make it easier to negotiate. this is a guy who knows how to revive the economy and make oil sales go up. he was credited with bringing the country back after the war. tehran was in a terrible state and he got the city and country back on its feet. they are hoping he will be able to do as well as mending foreign fences. >> bureau chief, well done. switching from the camera to the phone. we did it almost seamlessly to

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>> it's only tuesday, but a rough week for president obama and a borage of questions whether it's benghazi and the

irs facing new revelations and secretly obtained phone records and various reporters there. let's bring in the tuesday gaggle and editor for thegrio.com. blanche lincoln and rob uhrlach. perry, i want to start with you. individually the white house is trying to handle all these collectively. it looks like an administration under siege. >> yes, it does. the benghazi issue was huge before. the irs scandal. a big problem there. journalists, of course, are very concerned about the a.p. and what happened in terms of documents being seized. >> seemed to be a little unprecede unprecedented. >> what i know so far sounds unprecedented. takes away from the president's ability to talk about -- he had this health care event on friday. the problem, where does the immigration go from here? it's a lot of taking away attention from -- >> at a smaller level i have been there. when you want to talk and you're

abexecutive, you want to talk about your agenda, bills -- >> you're getting hammered. >> i think benghazi is an exception. with regard to the irs. >> you're dealing with -- >> you're dealing with it. you have nothing to do with it. people who work for you may have screwed up. you have to deal with it. it makes for ugly days. >> tahe acting commissioner put an op-ed in the "usa today." i have to say, blanche, i hate this phrase. second paragraph reads mistakes were made, but they were in no way due to any political and partisan motivation. we are and will be dedicated to reviewing all applications for tax exempt status in an impartial matter. he claims we sought to centralize work in this area in 2010 because your office observed a sharp increase number of of sections coming from groups potentially engaged in political campaign intervention. that is a fact. there is in flux a 501 c 3 and

501 c 4. clearly a shortcut was made to say it's easy to figure out who some of these groups are on the conservative end. we have no evidence they tried to do this on the liberal end. >> clearly i think it's really important for the american people to know that when agencies are doing something like you said, i mean, there's a huge plethora of these groups out there. but it's got to be done fair. it's got to be done in a fair way. i was watching the program last night. they were talking about what happened with naacp. either side has been guilty of making mistakes. people are tired of mistakes. they're ready to see these agencies -- >> it's a cynicism in government and to distrust the government. that's where i thought the president missed an opportunity to talk about that issue. >> i would just love for republicans and democrats to come out and say, you know what? we screwed up. >> right. >> guess what? it's not politics. there's no excuses. mistakes were made. who made the mistakes, we're going to identify, fire them. we're sorry. this is the deal. just be up front. can you imagine in this town

what would happen? >> obama doesn't do outreach that way. he's the liberal let's talk about it. he said it was outrageous. >> especially because two minutes later you saw outrage in benghazi. he is upset. he thinks it's more politics than factual. >> why did he sell the video story for weeks later when he knew better, then? give me a break. >> the irs, you go to this cynicism in government. >> we've seen on both sides. we've lived this. at some point people have to say we screwed up, do it. be transparent. cut all the political talking points and all the garbage. both parties to it. just come out and say, look, the government wronged these folks. heads are going to roll. here are the heads, by the way. >> mistakes were made. >> you're the white house. you're trying to deal with this. you have an agenda you would like to get done. it's one of those slippery slopes. all of a sudden you could go from moving forward on immigration, and i still think that goes forward, but suddenly

the inability to be able to use public opinion could go away in a heart beat. >> it could. but these are the kind of things that preclude them from being able to talk about the things that need to be talked about. whether it's immigration or health care. i think they've got to strive forward in talking about those things. i also think it gives them a great opportunity to be able to say, okay, we're going to make, just as the president said in his state of the union speech, we're going to make government smarter. we're going to fwo into these agencies and we're going to make -- >> who's going to believe it? >> it's your right. >> who's going to believe it at this point? >> a tad cynical, chuck? this is great news for the tea party. the tea party has been languishing and struggling. now you wait for them to galvanize activists to raise money. >> it's crass, you're right. >> look at what mitch mcconnell is doing. he went over the top in trying to create this larger conspiracy. >> i agree. these folks are paranoid for a

reason. they were out to get them. they're right! so stop it. it's wrong. it's un-american. i'm upset today. >> was it wrong when the germans bombed pearl harbor? >> someone just answer me a couple questions, benghazi? why they sold the video store weeks down the road when they knew better. >> the question is, what is the there there. was it a political thing? i think the idea that they were covering up for politics is not quite -- everything i keep understanding is that it may have been some sort of -- whether internal fight at cia, back and forth. but covering up what the cia's role was in benghazi, period. >> there's no doubt we need to ensure safety in our embassies. and we've got to do that. but cleaning up on the agency sides and making sure that we're doing those kind of things would be a great opportunity for him in this administration -- >> we'll learn about benghazi, it was an entirely cia --

>> these questions raise the ultimate question. could something have been done to save lives? after all that time? because so many misrepresentations were made to congress and the american people from day one. >> shameless plugs. >> wife ann's birthday. happy birthday, honey. >> working with the nfib on sensible regs, cleaning up agencies. >> latching on to nfib as the best. love that group. they represent small business. god knows they have been on the defensive for a long time. >> exactly right. >> all right. that's it for this edition -- i don't have a good shameless plug today so i won't do it. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." my plug is to my staff. they put together a great show that we marched through in a few ways. coming up is chris jansing. bye, guys. i'm meteorologist bill karins. another wild day of temperatures

across the country. we don't really have any rain out there. don't worry about that. look at the highs in the midwest. easy into the low to mid-90s from minneapolis, kansas city, st. louis, 90s in dallas. 30 degrees cooler in boston than minneapolis. northeast still the chilly spot on the map.

good morning. i'm chris jansing. the obama administration is on defense. dealing with the fallout of three separate scandals with the

irs, attack on benghazi and now associated press phone records seized by the justice department. the a.p. says dozens of journalists had phone records secretly collected, calling it a massive and unprecedented intrusion. >> we got three different things going on. it looks like a firestorm. i think it's very important to be careful to separate them. >> dealing with, what, three or four different either scandals or big screwups in realtime. i think the irs one in the short term is most problematic. >> president obama was pressed on the two other issues in the east room, labeling the controversy over the benghazi talking points a side show but vowing to get to the bottom of the irs scandal where tea party groups were targeted for extra scrutiny. >> if, in fact, irs personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on, and were intentionally targeting conservative gs,